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Little Miss Grammarian (Humor, Communication, Setting the example)

The blessing and curse of having parents who both value wielding words well is that they cultivated an ear in me for good grammar. That’s not to say that I have perfect grammar. Far from it, but I try to at least speak decently. It’s heritage.

My Dad taught English long ago, and my Mom has taught language all her adult life and authored seven books on Italian language.

So, when my tennis student starts a sentence with “Me and…” it’s nails on a chalkboard. When I hear, “Like… you know…” I cringe. If someone says “So fun” I’m oft tempted to let them know it’s “So much fun” as my Dad did with me countless times.

And, being that I tend to take things to extremes, I have this fetish for adverbs being used correctly. When someone uses the ‘ly’ on an adverb correctly, well, horrible as this sounds, it’s almost as satisfying as biting into Toblerone chocolate.

Naturally, I’ve started my girl out on this path with gentle corrections now and then.

Tonight, I was getting her ready for bed…

Me – “I’m glad you’re back safe.”

Her – “Safe-ly.”

I chuckled. Couldn’t quite believe my ears. It’s not like I correct her all that much. But here she was, without a clue about what an adverb is, correcting me.

Welcome. Like countless parents, helping my child experience the best start to life that I can muster is my passion. Here I track meaningful, humorous and thought-provoking moments on the journey with my daughter.